A tilting vehicle with more than two wheels generally comprises a frame attached to the wheels in a tilting manner with respect to the ground so that the frame tilts during steering, actuating means connected to the frame and a tilting control unit connected to the actuating means to control the angular position of the frame.
Recently, compact tilting vehicles with more than two wheels were developed aiming at reducing pollution and traffic in big cities.
Controlling of the angular position of the frame and of the tilting wheels is an important issue relating to tilting vehicles.
Tilting vehicles are known where the tilting control unit uses a lateral acceleration sensing algorithm. In a lateral acceleration sensing algorithm (generally known in the scientific literature as “Direct Tilt Control, DTC”), a sensor measures the lateral acceleration of the frame during steering, the control unit elaborates sensor's output and drives the actuators to modify the angular position of the frame such that the weight and the centrifugal force are in rotational equilibrium about the tilting axis.
In this case, actuators are powered after the wheels substantially steer and an inertial load is generated during steering. This has the drawback that actuators requires the power to counterbalance the full steering inertial load. Another drawback is that steering inertial load is positively related to speed and may reach high values. Therefore wheels must have a relatively high lateral distance in order to avoid rollover and ensure stability in any driving condition.